Budapest: Cyclist numbers double

Cycling culture is flourishing in the streets of the Hungarian capital Budapest. The city's inhabitants use bicycles as a means of transport to school and work, and the number of cyclists has doubled over the last two years. Racer, granny and carrier bikes fill the streets and emphasise Budapest's reputation as one of the most cycling-friendly cities in Eastern Europe. By means of peaceful mass demonstrations and mainstreaming initiatives, cyclists and the city council are trying to encourage more inhabitants to join the city's germinating cycling culture.

In Budapest, cycling has become a means of transport as well as
a leisure pursuit. Cycling accounts for 4% of the city's transport
requirements and the number of cyclists is doubling almost year on
year. Budapest has long enjoyed a reputation in the region for its
strong cycling culture and cycle-friendly city administration,
which is doing what it can to encourage cycling. Copenhagenize.com
has nominated the Hungarian capital as Eastern Europe's most
cycle-friendly city.

The success in getting more cyclists onto the streets of
Budapest is due, among many other things, to the city council's
efforts to improve facilities and safety for the city's cyclists.
In recent years, Budapest City Council has made a determined effort
to integrate cycling with the rest of the city's transport system.
Many stretches of road now also have cycle tracks, there is an
attractive cycle route along the city's parks, there are cycle
stands in many parts of the city and passengers on suburban railway
trains can also take their bikes along with them. The City Council
is continuing to improve conditions.

In Budapest, cyclists, activists and the City Council have
focused on mainstreaming urban cycling culture and making the
bicycle a common and respected means of transport. Activists and
the City Council are directing their efforts to change people's
conception of cycling as an aggressive, blinkered activity, as is
the case in many other towns and cities. The sub-cultural aspect of
cycling needs to be recognised but it is also important for
ordinary citizens to be made part of the culture. The aim is to
make cycling normal and accepted and to re-establish the bicycle as
a respectable means of transport.

In order to emphasise the wide appeal of cycling, the Hungarian
cyclists' Association, Magyar Kerékpárosklub, has invested in
effective attitude-changing campaigns which portray the bike as a
quick, easy, comfortable and efficient means of transport. The
association is for example promoting cycling as an everyday means
of transport for the population at large by using atypical cyclists
in advertising to emphasise that everyone can use the bike as a
means of transport.

The advance of cycling as a normal means of transport is also
reflected in Budapest's cycle demonstrations, so-called 'Critical
Mass' demonstrations. Critical Masses in other cities are often
characterised by aggression, attitude and sub-cultural protests
against an established motoring. In Budapest, however, the events
attract thousands of inhabitants who want to promote the everyday
use of the bicycle. The demonstrations are never violent; the
cyclists stop at red traffic lights and prominent people often take
part. For example, Hungarian President László Sólyom has taken part
to show his support of cycling in Budapest.

Cycling's opponents

Although there is a generally positive attitude to cycling in
Budapest, the increasing prevalence of this means of transport on
the streets does have its opponents. In 2009, minor but important
changes to the advantage of cyclists were met by protests by the
city's car enthusiasts. For example, 70 parking spaces were removed
to make way for pedestrians and cyclists and one of the city's main
street carriageways was closed to make room for a new cycle track.
The organisation EMPAMO (Movement for Humane Parking) started an
offensive against cycling Budapest, which it describes as
fascistic. However, they have only managed to muster few
demonstrating motorists.

Comments

Transport

Key Learning Points >

In the attempt to promote cycling in Budapest, several approaches and a number of different initiatives have been beneficial. Among other things, a number of changes in the law have been adopted in favour of cyclists.

Example: Cyclists are allowed to ride the wrong way down one-way streets, stop in front of cars at traffic lights and they are no longer required to keep right in traffic and are allowed to ride in the middle of the road. At the same time, four speed limits have been reduced for motorists.

In Budapest cycling is simultaneously being promoted and introduced as an ordinary and positive means of transport rather than as a subculture. Target-oriented promotion and a direct marketing strategy have, among other things, secured cycling a positive image.

Finally, Budapest City Council has secured cyclists' potential to have more cycle tracks built, more parking spaces removed in the city centre and to have roads narrowed.

Process >

2007The first divided carriageway, on which cyclists and cars share the road, was introduced on a trial basis on the relatively lightly trafficated street Alkotmany Utca. The scheme is a success and is being implemented on two major roads, Thokoly Ut and a minor ring road. It is still uncertain as to whether motorists will respect cyclists to the extent that more people will pluck up the courage to cycle on main roads.

2008Budapest's City Council participates in the competition to host the International cycling conference ‘Velo-City’ in 2011 and is arguing that the city is Eastern Europe's best example of a cycling nation. Application was, however, later rejected to the advantage of Seville in Spain.

200970 parking spaces are removed to make way for pedestrians and cyclists and the new cycle track on one of the city's main roads is closed to cars.

December 200916 motorists hold an anti-cycling demonstration following the removal of 70 parking spaces in the centre of Budapest.

Project Facts >

In Budapest, cyclists, activists, the City Council and the Hungarian cyclists' association, Magyar Kerékpárosklub, have joined forces to promote cycling culture in the city.

The cyclists' association invests in effective attitude-changing campaigns which focus on the bicycle as a normal means of transport.

The City Council is making sure that the city's infrastructure is gradually being adapted to the needs of cyclists. In order to consolidate the city's cycle-friendly reputation, the city administration is also participating in competitions to host international cycling conferences the likes of Velo-City

Cyclists and activists in the city make sure that cycling gets a popular appeal, for example by means of peaceful Critical Mass demonstrations every six months.

Facts for Thought >

'Critical Mass' demonstrations are not held in Copenhagen. In greater Copenhagen, 500,000 cyclists already take to their bikes daily, and 36% of all transport in Copenhagen is by bicycle.

Mass protests were held in Copenhagen in the 1970s to promote cycling. They were, however, more popular than an expression of subculture.

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